New Zealand entered their maiden ICC World Cup final, beating South Africa by five wickets in a thrilling rain-reduced World Cup semi-final at Eden spoPark in Auckland on Tuesday. Set 298 to win from 43 overs, the Kiwis, led by fine knocks from captain Brendon McCullum (59 off 26 balls) and Grant Elliott (84 off 73) got across the finish line with one ball to spare. Elliott hit the winning run with a six over long-on off the bowling of Dale Steyn.
Hosts England became the first team to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals after hammering New Zealand by 87 runs to stay top of Group A at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Tuesday.
Photos of the World Cup Pool A game between Afghanistan and New Zealand being played in Napier
Kane Williamson coolly struck a straight six to give New Zealand a one wicket victory over Australia in a dramatic battle between the World Cup hosts at Eden Park on Saturday.
Images from the T20 World Cup semi-final between England and New Zealand, in Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday.
On a roll with four consecutive victories, two-time champions Mumbai Indians would look to continue the winning streak when they take on Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League match, in Indore, on Thursday.
New Zealand will face England with an unchanged side in their second World Cup match.
Indian openers have not replicated the kind of starts the Indian batting has grown accustomed to from its top-order.
Neesham, a batting all-rounder, rocked the Afghanistan innings by his incisive bowling and in the process returned with his career-best figures of 5/31 from his 10 overs. His earlier best was 4/42.
New Zealand batsman Henry Nicholls said the ODI squad did not carry the baggage of the T20 side which was blanked by India and that reflected in its highest run chase in 50-overs cricket, in the series opener in Hamilton, on Wednesday. Riding on Ross Taylor's 21st hundred, the hosts chased down their highest total in ODIs on Wednesday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second ODI will be played in Auckland on Saturday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers from the T20 series against England.
Aggressive top-order batsman Jesse Ryder was passionate about rekindling his international career after he was thrown a World Cup lifeline by being named in a New Zealand 'A' team for one-day matches in the United Arab Emirates next month.
Jasprit Bumrah produced a master-class in limited-overs bowling to lead India to a seven-run victory over New Zealand in their fifth Twenty20 international. Images from the fifth T20I at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.
Following his return to form in the abruptly-ended West Indies series, Indian batsman Virat Kohli claimed the number two slot in the ICC rankings while swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke into the top-10 for the first time in his career.
Rohit Sharma belted two sixes off the final two deliveries of a Super Over to give India victory in a thrilling finish in the third Twenty20 international against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Wednesday and clinch the series with two games to spare. Images from the third T20 between India and New Zealand, at Hamilton, on Wednesday.
Talented youngster Shai Hope smashed his way to a blistering 101 while Andre Russell scored a quickfire 54 down the order to set up a 91-run win for World Cup dark horses West Indies in their warm-up game against New Zealand.
The focus will be on K L Rahul and Vijay Shankar, contenders for the number four slot, in the World Cup warm up match against New Zealand, in London, on Saturday.
Virat Kohli held centrestage with a delightful unbeaten 85 after a collective bowling effort as India cruised to an easy six-wicket victory over New Zealand taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series in Dharamsala on Sunday. After bowling out New Zealand for 190 in 43.5 overs, India reached the target in a mere 33.1 overs in a match that turned out to be thoroughly one-sided.
Pace bowler Jackson Bird has been recalled by Australia for the first Test against New Zealand after James Pattinson was deemed not quite ready to stand up to the rigours of a full workload, captain Steve Smith said on Thursday.
Thanks to Taylor's 102 and Latham's 108 (both retired out) on a flat Brabourne Stadium track, New Zealand notched up a mammoth 343 for nine in the allotted 50 overs.
After England collapsed from 288 for five to 302 all out, New Zealand initially struggled in reply before Williamson and Taylor took the game away from the hosts with a clinical 206-run third-wicket stand.
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor scored centuries as New Zealand completed their World Cup preparations with a crushing 119-run win over Pakistan in Napier on Tuesday. It was their eighth win in their last 10 completed matches.
Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson fell agonisingly short of centuries but New Zealand's imposing total ensured they beat Sri Lanka by 120 runs in the sixth One-day international on Sunday to take an unassailable 4-1 lead in their seven-match series.
Selecting a talent like Virat Kohli early in his career would be considered a masterstroke by most but according to former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, it ended his career as a national selector.
It was not an ideal preparation, but New Zealand made good use of their time in the middle against a mediocre Mumbai attack on Day 1 of their only warm-up match ahead of the three-Test series against India.
Among others, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has moved up to take top position among bowlers with some fine performances in a 2-0 series win over Zimbabwe.
Trent Boult top the most valuable players list with Mohammed Shami hold on to second position
India are yet to finalise their middle-order ahead of the World Cup but are unlikely to tinker much with the playing eleven for Friday's second ODI in Mount Maunganui.
Paceman Dushmantha Chameera took career-best figures with aggressive short-pitched bowling to give Sri Lanka a slight advantage at the close of play on the second day of the second Test against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Saturday.
Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne obstinately defied New Zealand's bowlers for much of the second day of the first Test at University Oval in Dunedin on Friday though the hosts still have the upper hand.
With a new cricket director, coach and chairman, England return to the field of play in the first Test against New Zealand on Thursday following an extraordinary period of upheaval.
Cricket's global showpiece has confirmed the Scots are a way from being able to compete with the top Test playing nations.
Star India batsman Virat Kohli was on Monday named Ceat T20 Player of the Year while former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at a glittering function attended by several past and present players in Mumbai. England batsman Joe Root was named as the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year as well as International Batsman of the Year. India off-spinner R Ashwin won the Ceat International Bowler of the Year award while Rohit Sharma was named as the Indian Cricketer of the Year. Kohli has been in the form of his life in the shortest format recently as he was named as Player-of-the-Tournament in the World T20 held in India earlier this year and won the orange cap for amassing the most runs of 973 in 16 matches in the just-concluded IPL-9.
It will be the biggest day in the history of Trans-Tasman cricketing rivalry when four-time champions Australia will be pitted against a highly committed bunch from New Zealand in the final of the ICC World Cup at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Chris Gayle intends to keep playing international cricket with his eyes on the 2016 World Twenty20 but admitted his back injury will sideline him from next month's Test series against England.
Defending IPL champions Mumbai Indians have been hit hard by the Bombay High Court decision to shift all their home games out of the Wankhede Stadium, but the side were focused only on the game, according to wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel.
Jasprit Bumrah backed debutant fellow-India pacer Mohammed Siraj to learn from his mistakes and come good after he received a hammering from New Zealand's batsmen in the second Twenty20 International, in Rajkot, on Saturday.
New Zealand's Tim Southee produced a brilliant spell of swing bowling for career best figures of 7-33 to dismiss England for 123 in their World Cup Pool A match at Wellington Regional Stadium on Friday.
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
'The real measure that was used for generations was least amount of wickets lost. So why have we changed that?'
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